William Blake

William Blake (November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827) was an English poet, painter and printmaker, or "Author & Printer", as he signed many of his books. He is now widely recognised as a genius of English letters, and one of the foremost (arguably the foremost) visionary artists of the modern age; it is now fashionable in certain circles to criticise his art as simplistic. It is fair to state that Blake's visual art, if only for being so closely wedded to his verse, will outlive such criticism.

Works

"Illuminated Books":

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• c.1788: All Religions are One
• There is No Natural Religion
• 1789: Songs of Innocence
• The Book of Thel
• 1790-1793: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
• 1793: Visions of the Daughters of Albion
• America: a Prophecy
• 1794: Europe: a Prophecy
• The First Book of Urizen
• Songs of Experience (The sequel to Songs of Innocence, with many of its poems intended as counterpoints from the Fallen world to those in the first book, this was Blake's only Illuminated book to achieve even limited success in his lifetime. It includes the poems The Tyger and The Sick Rose)
• 1795: The Book of Los
• The Song of Los
• The Book of Ahania
• c.1804-c.1811: '
• 1804-1820: '
• Never seek to tell thy love

Works by other authors illustrated by Blake:

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• 1788: Mary Wollstonecraft, Original Stories from Real Life
• 1797: Edward Young, Night Thoughts
• 1805-1808: Robert Blair, The Grave
• 1808: John Milton, Paradise Lost
• 1819-1820: John Varley, Visionary Heads
• 1821: R.J. Thornton, Virgil
• 1823-1826: The Book of Job
• 1825-1827: Dante, The Divine Comedy (Blake died in 1827 with these watercolours still unfinished)